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– Film Educational Handout –
A BOMB WAS STOLEN / S-A FURAT O BOMBA
Romania 1961
Spy Comedy
First showing in Germany: 23rd November, 1962, in the GDR
Director: Ion Popescu-Gopo
Screenplay: Ion Popescu-Gopo
Cameraman: Stefan Horvath
Musical Director: Dumitru Capoianu
Production: Filmstudio Bucuresti
Cast: Iurie Darie, Emil Botta, Haralambie Boroş, Ovid Teodorescu, Geo Saizescu and others
Running time: 72 Min.
Format: 35 mm, b&w, without dialogue.
Certificate: none issued
Recommended viewing: 15+
Educational Level: Year 10 and above
Themes: the East-West conflict, the arms race
Subject Areas: History, Political / Social Studies, Art, Ethics / Religion, German
Rights/Permission for school screenings: PROGRESS Film-Verleih.
Content and Storyline
The film opens in a deserted wasteland, which resembles a mysterious no-man’s-land. This is
where the main character appears for the first time. He picks a flower, but as he does this, a
military aircraft catches him unawares and he’s temporarily taken into custody by special forces in
silver uniforms. An atom bomb is about to be tested. Back in the city, the young man goes looking
for work, but by mistake – for this is a comedy, after all – he picks up a briefcase containing an
atom bomb. Not realising what he’s done, he carries it around the town, hotly pursued by a gang of
criminals, who originally stole it and want it back, and uniformed guards from the XOX Company,
from whom it was stolen and who also want to get it back. Whilst the two groups chase each other
back and forth, each trying to stop the other getting hold of the bomb, ending with a final grand
battle, the young man falls in love with a bus conductress. He wins her heart and at the end of the
film, the power of their love turns the destructive bomb into small, energy-radiating pieces, which
they distribute to the townspeople. In the final scene, they return to the place where it all began:
the atom bomb test has turned the wasteland into a flower-strewn meadow.
Theme
The theme of the film is an allegory of the arms race during the Cold War – the competitive
pressure to ‘get the bomb’ and the fears about its destructive potential. Two opposing factions,
symbolising wealth and power, battle for sole possession of the bomb. They race each other to get
the bomb back from its unwitting owner, the young man. The members of the gangster mob are so
afraid of what the bomb represents, that at the very moment they are about to seize it, their
courage fails them and they fumble their chance. The nerdy lock-picker’s lips tremble and twitch;
the hard-bitten cowboy’s forehead is bathed in sweat and the biggest, fattest man in the gang
sneezes in terror at full volume. In spite of this high comedy, the film has a serious message: that
the real danger of the bomb lies less in its explosive power but, on the contrary, in the mutual
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rivalry of the rich and powerful to possess it. The solution to this problem is provided at the end of
the film: neither the gangsters nor XOX, the company that owns it, will get it back for their warlike
ends. Instead, the energy potential of the atom bomb is redirected for peaceful purposes to all
men, whatever their origin or skin colour.
Characters and Character Groups in the Film
The Man with the Flower
The anonymous hero of the film, who picks a flower in the opening scene, is the human on-screen
alter ego of a cartoon character created by the film’s director Ion Popescu-Gopo. This character
had appeared before in his animated cartoons and almost always carried a flower. In A Bomb Was
Stolen, the young man in the rumpled suit is at the same time the most unthreatening and the most
dangerous character in the film. His peace-loving nature is underlined at the outset by his act of
picking the flower. But although he harbours no evil intentions and is only looking for work, he very
soon becomes a threat to the whole city: the slightest knock could set off the bomb in the
briefcase…and so, quite unwittingly, he runs hither and thither through the town, literally a ticking
time-bomb.
The Criminal Gang
The gang of criminals, who originally set out to steal and make off with the bomb, and who pursue
the young man throughout the film, are deliberate allusions to aspects of American culture. The
gang leader – portly, dressed in a smart suit, with a fedora on his head and a cigarette between his
lips – reminds us of the gangster Al Capone, boss of the Chicago underworld in the 1920s and
1930s. Like Capone, who posed as a collector of antiques, the gang leader in this film is the owner
of a bridal wear shop – where people smoke and gamble in a backroom, and where there’s
another secret room hidden behind a trapdoor.
The way the gang leader and his wife behave in the film is clearly meant as a parody of American
consumerism: returning from a shopping trip, they show off, to each other (and to the film
audience) the latest clothes they’ve bought, as they play modern jazz on the gramophone. In the
wife’s case, her clothes even match the décor of the flat. The behavioural quirks of the gang
members are a catalogue of clichés straight out of American gangster films, westerns and slapstick
comedies, effectively recreated here. But their outward coolness does not stand up under
pressure: although they’re armed with weapons and all manner of sophisticated burglary tools, and
have every opportunity to achieve their ends, at the decisive moment, they lack the courage to
make off with the bomb.
The Uniformed Guards
The uniformed guards, who, at the start of the film, are supposed to prevent the theft of the bomb
from the XOX Company and then to recover it, are unbelievably clumsy and stupid. They
obediently follow orders to pursue the gangsters, but then run straight past them. They move in
close formation, under the command of an officer, who gives directions with a police whistle. They
march through the XOX building as if they were a well rehearsed corps de ballet. The insignia on
their uniforms – two crossed lightning flashes – looks rather like that of Hitler’s SS: this could be to
remind the audience of Romania’s co-operation with the Nazis under its pre-war dictator Ion
Antonescu, or may even be a direct reference to the Nazi régime itself and to its militaristic
structures, which suppressed individual rights and activities. Their monochrome uniforms and their
lack of any distinguishing personal features is in marked contrast to the striking and easily
recognisable types in the criminal gang; so this may also possibly be intended as an allusion to the
subordinate role of the individual in socialist society.
The Bus Conductress and the Townspeople
The young bus conductress with the blonde hair lives in modest circumstances in the suburbs. She
returns there in the evening at the end of her shift; her neighbours are ordinary working people,
who represent a cross-section of the citizens of ‘fraternal socialist states’ from all parts of the world.
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The young man falls in love with her at first sight: her angelic qualities are underlined in the film by
two surreal white wings, which every so often just appear on her back. She is a kind of Virgin Mary
figure, who at the end of the film initiates the idea of the peaceful uses of atomic energy.
Cinematic Resources and Materials
Genre
A Bomb Was Stolen is one of the few films which debates the theme of the arms race from both an
artistic and comic point of view. The film is dialogue-free and is produced in the style of a silent
film; it deploys slapstick, and parodies both the American cinema in general and the spy film genre
in particular. The surreal storyline is evident from the opening sequence: an indeterminate
landscape, the innocuous act of picking a flower, and the futuristic style of the uniforms worn by the
military unit, all create an atmosphere of unreality, which pervades the film throughout. The
humorous element stems from the ignorance of the leading character about what’s in the briefcase
he’s picked up, as well as from the contradictions inherent in his role.
A Bomb Was Stolen stands out from the other spy films of its time, precisely because it
manipulates the style and character devices of the conventional spy genre, breaks the rules, shifts
meanings and uses this to create the comedy. But as in any spy film, the hero here is also on a
perilous mission – only he doesn’t know it. Another example: the most sophisticated tools deployed
by the criminals to burgle the XOX site prove to be useless in the end. And the two rival groups do
not symbolise good and evil – ‘them and us’ in the Cold War context – but are both equally
reprehensible.
Communication of Thoughts and Feelings without Words
In exactly the same way as a true silent film, A Bomb Was Stolen employs visual language to
express thoughts and emotions that would normally require dialogue. The conversation between
the leaders of the rival groups, the gangsters and XOX, is carried out with the help of an electronic
intermediary, a brain-operated typewriter. The audience understands the love affair between the
hero and the bus conductress not just from his lingering, blissful gazes, but also from the angel’s
wings she grows in his daydreams.
Historical Influences from other Films
The production style of A Bomb Was Stolen is reminiscent of the slapstick used by the French
actor / director Jacques Tati: situation comedy without words, backed by jazzy music, was the
hallmark of Monsieur Hulot’s Holiday (Les vacances de M. Hulot, France, 1953). There were close
links from the earliest days of cinema between Romanian and French film-makers, partly based on
the similarity of the two languages; there were French directors working in the Buftea Studios in the
1950s and 1960s, and it’s quite possible some of Popescu-Gopo’s comedy ideas came from his
familiarity with Tati’s film.
Moreover, there are a number of hommages to other famous directors: in the dream sequence,
there’s an obvious reference to the king of slapstick, Charlie Chaplin. The scene, where the young
man dreams of living within his own four walls and eating a meal with his beloved, is almost
identical to that in Modern Times (USA, 1935) – another sound film which was also produced like a
silent film. In the same way, the opening scene, where the young man is caught unawares in the
empty wasteland by a military helicopter, has strong overtones of the classic scene in Hitchcock’s
North by Northwest (USA, 1959), where Cary Grant is pursued by an aeroplane across bare,
empty fields. The Hitchcock film was released just two years before A Bomb Was Stolen.
Background and Secondary Themes
The Nuclear Arms Race between the USA and the USSR
A Bomb Was Stolen was made at the height of the Cold War, when the arms race between the
USA and the USSR was in its most intense phase. Nuclear arsenals on both sides of the Iron
Curtain were growing apace: their deployment was, at this stage, clearly intended for possible use
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in war. In 1961, when A Bomb Was Stolen was made, it was just four years on from the declaration
of NATO’s deterrent policy of massive retaliation. A first strike by the USSR – nuclear or
conventional – would produce a NATO response of total war, which would necessarily include
nuclear weapons. This arms race began to intensify from the early 1960s onwards. On October
30th 1961, just days after Soviet and American tanks faced each other, guns at the ready, across
Checkpoint Charlie in Berlin, the Russians exploded the most powerful hydrogen bomb ever at
their test site in the Arctic Ocean. It was 3,500 times more powerful than the bomb at Hiroshima,
which killed 45,000 people on the first day in 1945, rising to 136,000 over the next few months. The
arms race had in fact begun immediately after the end of the 2nd World War: the USSR tested its
first successful atom bomb in 1949, and thus the Americans lost their monopoly of nuclear arms. In
the following years, both sides developed hydrogen bombs with ever more powerful radioactive
destructive capability. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, the two superpowers were locked in an
arms race based on the use of strategic weapons with nuclear warheads. The Russians’ success
in launching the Sputnik satellite into space in 1957 suggested an intercontinental rocket strike on
the USA was a real possibility, an event often described as ‘sputnik shock’ by historians. The arms
race then broadened into a superpower ‘race into space’: the silver suits worn by the special units
in A Bomb Was Stolen can be taken as alluding to this race to the moon.
1961 was also the year the USA began to deploy its B-52 bombers armed with nuclear missiles on
24 / 7 patrols across Europe, the Mediterranean and the Pacific Ocean: if war broke out, these
could rapidly be launched at pre-arranged targets in the Soviet Union. A year after A Bomb Was
Stolen was released, the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962 brought the world to the brink of
nuclear war. The Americans regarded the stationing of Soviet mid-range nuclear missiles in Cuba
as an extreme provocation and they blockaded the Soviet military transport vessels taking them
there. Days of negotiations, threats and counter-threats finally ended with the Soviet leader, Nikita
Khrushchev, backing down and withdrawing the rockets.
The rationale of the nuclear arms race was that as long as bigger and more dangerous weapons
could be built, with ever more devastating and destructive explosive power, then neither side could
contemplate attacking the other. The nuclear stalemate between the two superpowers guaranteed
mutual total destruction in the event of a war, and ultimately had the effect of underpinning peace;
at the very least, it ensured there was no open war between the Americans and the Russians.
Romania’s role in the military alliance of the Warsaw Pact
Romania spent the 2nd World War supporting Nazi Germany and fighting against the USSR; then
the victorious Red Army marched into Bucharest in August 1944. This paved the way for
Romania’s adoption of Communism and its alliance with the Soviet Union. The ‘People’s Republic
of Romania’ was declared in 1947, with the Communist Party as the only ruling party, under its
Minister President, Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej. He brought about the Stalinisation of Romania,
through forced collectivisation and the elimination of all political dissent.
On May 14th 1955, the Soviets concluded what they termed ‘a pact of friendship, co-operation and
mutual assistance’ between themselves and seven Central and Eastern European socialist states,
including Romania. It was known as the Warsaw Treaty Organisation, or more familiarly, as the
Warsaw Pact. This political and military alliance was designed to provide a counterweight to the
western military alliance, NATO, and to lock the East European ‘People’s Republics’ into the
sphere of the Soviet Union. They submitted to the growing dominance of Moscow and ceded much
national autonomy, but in exchange they could rely on the support of the Russian nuclear arsenal if
it ever came to a war. With the establishment of the Warsaw Pact in the east and NATO in the
west, two military alliances now faced each other across Europe, both armed to the teeth with
nuclear weapons. At this point, the USA, the USSR and the UK were the only nuclear powers.
Romania’s relations with the USSR began harmoniously enough, but in the 1960s, the country
began to distance itself from its northern neighbour in order to pursue more closely its own national
interests. The breakaway was triggered on the one hand by the Soviets’ inflexible attitude to the
Hungarian uprising of 1956, and again during the second Berlin Crisis, which led to the building of
the Wall in August 1961. Another factor was the Cuban Missile Crisis of just over a year later:
Romania feared being dragged into a nuclear war that would have endangered its own security
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interests. But there was another side to this split: Romania did not accept the power balance within
the unified military command structure of the Warsaw Pact. The USSR insisted that it must have
sole command of the unified armed forces in time of war and that it alone could decide on the use
of nuclear weapons.
The first Warsaw Pact military exercises in fact took place on Romanian soil in 1955; they involved
the first-use deployment of nuclear weapons. Soviet troops were at this stage still stationed in
Romania and they were only withdrawn in 1958. Thereafter, the first differences of opinion between
Bucharest and Moscow started to appear. In 1964, these became more acute, even while
Gheorghiu-Dej was still in power, and continued when Nicolae Ceauşescu took over in 1965.
Romania was one of the first Warsaw Pact countries to open itself to the west: it was the first
member of the Soviet bloc to establish diplomatic relations with West Germany. Nonetheless,
Romania remained a member of the Warsaw Pact until it was dissolved on July 1st, 1991.
Against this background, it’s hardly surprising that a film which indirectly condemned Soviet
nuclear policy was passed by the Romanian censors. If the film is taken as a parable of the
situation at that time, with the uniformed XOX guards representing the Soviets and the gangsters
the Americans, then A Bomb Was Stolen accurately reflects the Romanian view of both
superpowers during the Cold War. And the fact that both the gangsters and their opponents are left
empty-handed at the end of the film is yet another indirect condemnation of their belligerent
objectives – and therefore those of both nuclear superpowers.
The Utopian Ideal of the peaceful use of Nuclear Energy
A Bomb Was Stolen concludes with the utopian vision of the peaceful use of nuclear energy,
bringing with it prosperity and the a sharing of scientific progress. The Danish physicist Niels Bohr
had already, in 1950, propounded such a vision of the domestic uses of nuclear energy, in an open
letter to the United Nations. Bohr warned of the destructive potential of nuclear weapons and
argued for scientific co-operation that would transcend the politics of east and west, in order to
apply the benefits of nuclear energy worldwide for peaceful civilian use. He became a role model
for the anti-nuclear movement of the 1950s.
Suggestion for further viewing
DR. STRANGELOVE OR: HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE THE BOMB (UK
1964, Director: Stanley Kubrick)
As with A Bomb Was Stolen, Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying
and Love the Bomb is a comedy about the arms race. But unlike the Romanian film, Kubrick’s film
ends not in a peaceful Utopia, but with the worst case scenario: an American atom bomb being
dropped over Russia. The man responsible for this unauthorised warmongering is General Jack D.
Ripper. Whilst the American President is out of the war room and personally trying to persuade the
Soviet President that it’s all a mistake that a US bomber is over Soviet territory, the B-52 has
already broken off contact with its airbase and is on the way to its target.
Stanley Kubrick’s film is full of references to other films and to real persons: as in Popescu-Gopo’s
comedy, there are in Dr. Strangelove clichéd western figures, like Major Kong, the officer in charge
of the B-52 bomber. Dr Strangelove himself is a German scientist with a predisposition to giving the
Nazi salute: he shows some of the character traits of the rocket engineer Wernher von Braun, who
worked for the Nazis before becoming a leading light in the American space programme after the
2nd World War. The black glove he wears is also an allusion to Dr Rotwang, the mad scientist in
Fritz Lang’s 1926 film Metropolis.
The Director, Ion Popescu-Gopo
b. 1st May,1923, Bucharest, d. 28th November, 1989, Bucharest
Popescu-Gopo was given art lessons by his father and went on to study at the Bucharest
Academy of Fine Arts. From 1939, he worked as a cartoonist and book illustrator, then in
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1950 he joined the Bucharest Cinematographic Studio, in their animation division. There, in
collaboration with his father, he made his first animated films, such as The Disobedient
Duck (1950), and The Bee and the Dove (1951). These animations reveal his admiration
for the work of Walt Disney. In 1956 he made the first of several films featuring a character
he invented, the ‘little man’: a 10-minute short called A Brief History, which won the Palme
d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 1957. He made many more animated films as well as
three full-length features, of which A Bomb Was Stolen was the first. He worked first as a
director, later also as a teacher, in the “Anima” studios, which were founded in 1964.
Recommended further reading
• Kalter Krieg. 60 Filme aus Ost und West. Katalog der Retrospektive der 41. Internationalen
Filmfestspiele Berlin (The Cold War: 60 films from East and West. Catalogue of the
Retrospective of the 41st International Film Festival, Berlin), German Cinematic Foundation
(Stiftung Deutsche Kinemathek). Berlin 1991.
• Diedrich, Torsten / Heinemann, Winfried / Ostermann, Christian F. (Eds): Der Warschauer Pakt.
Von der Gründung bis zum Zusammenbruch 1955 bis 1991 (The Warsaw Pact. From Founding
to Collapse, 1955-1991). Schriftenreihe der bpb (Band 782). (Publications of the Federal
Agency for Civic Education [vol. 782]). Bonn 2009.
• Gerdes, Hilke: Rumänien. Mehr als Dracula und Walachei (Romania. Beyond Dracula and
Wallachia). Schriftenreihe der bpb (Band 707) (Publications of the Federal Centre for Political
Education [vol. 707]). Bonn 2007.
• Salewski, Michael (Ed.): Das Zeitalter der Bombe. Die Geschichte der atomaren Bedrohung
von Hiroshima bis heute (The Age of the Bomb. The History of the nuclear threat from
Hiroshima to Today). Verlag C. H. Beck, München 1995.
• Schumacher, Frank: Leben mit der Bombe. Kernwaffen und Kalter Krieg, 1945-1962. In: Der
Kalte Krieg, hrsg. in Zusammenarbeit mit DAMALS – Das Magazin für Geschichte (Living with
the Bomb. Nuclear Weapons and the Cold War, in collaboration with Damals, the Magazine for
History). Konrad Theiss Verlag, Stuttgart 2010, pp. 25-32.
• Stöver, Bernd: Der Kalte Krieg 1947-1991. Geschichte eines radikalen Zeitalters (The Cold
War, 1947 – 1991: The History of a Radical Age). Verlag C. H. Beck, München 2007. In
particular chapter 5: „Eine Welt in Waffen“ (“A Weaponised World”).
Further Links
• “The Celluloid Curtain – Europe's Cold War in Film” – website.
http://www.celluloid-curtain.eu
• Website with information on the history of nuclear weapons, scientific data on atomic physics, a
glossary of terms and an overview of the various initiatives to bring about a nuclear weaponsfree world.
http://www.atomwaffena-z.info
• bpb.de: Informationen zur politischen Bildung. Heft 245 (Information on Political Education.
Pamphlet no. 245): Internationale Beziehungen (International Relations). Articles and source
material on the origins and development of the East-West conflict.
http://www.bpb.de/publikationen/90DR2J,0,0,Internationale_Beziehungen_I.html
• bpb.de: Essay by Annette Kilzer on Dr. Strangelove, Or How I Learnt to Stop Worrying and
Love the Bomb.
http://www.bpb.de/themen/RGTCB5,0,Dr_Seltsam.html
• Progress-Film Agency website with Information on Die Gestohlene Bombe.
http://www.progress-film.de/de/filmarchiv/film.php?id=6621
• Blog by a Romanian schoolboy AG with Information on Ion Popescu-Gopo and excerpts from
his animated cartoons.
http://www.surprising-romania.blogspot.com/2009/07/ion-popescu-gopo.html
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•
Radio documentary “The Cold War in Spy Films” on Deutschlandradio Kultur.
http://wissen.dradio.de/kino-der-kalte-krieg-imspionagefilm.38.de.html?dram:article_id=10449&sid=
Supporting Educational Material on the Cinema
• VISION KINO: School and Cinema: Practical Textbook for Teachers.
http://www.visionkino.de/WebObjects/VisionKino.woa/1/wa/CMSshow/1109855?
wosid=Kn90jwNCZMNhhnMifJHlQM
More on this topic on Kinofenster (Window on the Cinema)
• The Fog of War (Discussion on 1st September, 2004).
http://www.kinofenster.de/filmeundthemen/neuimkino/archiv_neuimkino/the_fog_of_war_film/
• Thirteen Days (Discussion on 1st March, 2001).
http://www.kinofenster.de/filmeundthemen/neuimkino/archiv_neuimkino/thirteen_days_film/
• Unter Kontrolle (Under Control ) (Film of the month, Mai 2011).
http://www.kinofenster.de/download/monatsausgabe-unter-kontrolle.pdf
Glossary
North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, founded in 1949. Military alliance between North
NATO
American and West European states, with the original objective of deterrence and
defence against the Soviet Union and its allies. After the end of the Cold War, its main
focus shifted to the fostering of partnership dialogue, arms control and crisis
intervention measures throughout the European and Atlantic areas.
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Suggestions for further classroom study
Study Area
German / Art
Topic
Character Outlines
Social Types and Classwork Exercises
Group work (GW): think up names or
descriptions for the characters and groups
of characters in the film. List them on a
flipchart, add a drawing alongside to
symbolise each one and a single sentence
to sum up the main objective(s) of the
character or character group.
Film Genre
(GW): Define the characteristics of
westerns, slapstick comedy and spy films.
Next, compile a list of those characteristics
which occur in A Bomb Was Stolen, and of
when they appear in the film; then write
them up on a wall-chart or panel.
Class Work (CW): Compare the dream
sequence from A Bomb Was Stolen with the
dream sequence in Charlie Chaplin’s
Modern Times (USA 1936); highlight the
similarities and differences in terms of their
content, humour and the artistic direction.
Individual work (IW): Write a short essay
on the nuclear arms race.
IW: Read document MC 14/2 in the NATO
archive, and make notes on the military
strategy the alliance adopted following the
deployment of nuclear weapons.
CW: Discuss the final sequence in the film
against the background of the political
situation of that time.
CW: Watch another film comedy on the
theme of the nuclear arms race, for
example Stanley Kubrick’s Dr Strangelove,
or How I Learnt to Stop Worrying and Love
the Bomb (GB 1964), and compare its style
of humour with A Bomb Was Stolen.
IW: Read the appropriate section from Niels
Bohr’s open letter to the United Nations
from June 9th 1950, and, using keywords,
define its demands.
CW: Discuss the similarities between Bohr’s
demands and the final sequence of A Bomb
Was Stolen.
Fishbowl discussion: the advantages and
disadvantages of peaceful and civilian uses
of nuclear energy.
CW: Describe the role and use of music and
sound effects (taking as an example the
scene in front of the cinema); describe how,
in individual scenes, thoughts and emotions
are communicated without using dialogue.
GW: Following the example of the scene in
A Bomb Was Stolen outside the cinema, set
stills from a variety of different genres of film
to music and sound effects.
Film comparisons
History /
Political Science
Nuclear Arms Race and
Nuclear espionage
The NATO strategy of
‘massive retaliation’
Film comparisons
Ethics / Social Studies Civilian
Energy
Art / Music
Uses
of
Nuclear
Cinematic
Design
and
Production Techniques.
Setting stills to music
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Worksheet
By accident a young man inadvertently comes into possession of an atom bomb. He innocently
carries it across the town in a briefcase. But the gang of criminals, who stole the bomb and want it
back, and the uniformed security guards of the XOX company, from whom the bomb has been
stolen, are both hot on the young man’s heels.
A Bomb Was Stolen is one of the few artistic and humorous treatments of the nuclear arms race.
It’s a ‘sound film’ without dialogue, produced in the style of a silent film, and recalls the slapstick
comedies of the French actor / director Jacques Tati. It’s possible to detect allusions to other films
with regard to some of the characters and the dramatic construction. The final sequence reflects
the demands of the growing anti-nuclear movement of the time.
The tasks here are designed for students from age 15 upwards and are intended to stimulate the
analysis of the film’s characterisation, production and political message. These tasks are suitable
for the following subject areas: German, History, Politics and Social Studies, Ethics, Art and Music.
Task 1: Preparatory work before viewing the film
Subject areas: German, Art, Music
a) Find out in which year this ‘sound film’ was made.
b) Consider for what reason(s) a director might have decided, in 1961, to make a sound film
without dialogue in the style of a film from the silent era.
c) Observational tasks whilst watching the film:
− Which different characters and groups of characters appear in the film?
− How do people communicate their thoughts and feelings without words?
− What roles do music and sound effects play in the film?
Once you’ve seen the film, do you think your ideas in question b) above were right?
Task 2: Analysis of Characters and Groups of Characters in the Film
Subject areas: German, Art
a) Work in small groups and give names or descriptions to the various characters and groups of
characters in the film. List these on a card or flipchart and alongside each one, sum up the
objective(s) of the character or character group.
b) Working on your own, design a ‘wanted’ poster showing the personal particulars (appearance,
distinguishing features, mannerisms) of the members of the group who set out to steal the bomb.
c) What are the differences between these people and the other groups in the film?
d) Think yourself into the position of the film’s director, and explain, as if to a journalist, how you
created the leading role of the young man and why you gave him his particular characteristics.
Deal with issues such as his age, appearance and mannerisms, and consider to what extent he’s
different from the other characters in the film.
Task 3: Reflect on the Ending of the Film
Subject areas: German, History, Politics and Social Studies, Ethics
a) As a class, talk through the final sequence of the film: what is its message?
b) Working in small groups, develop an alternative ending to the film and write it up on a sheet of
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A4. Consider the following point: what would have happened if the gang of criminals had
succeeded in finally getting hold of the bomb?
c) Individually, read the NATO document numbered MC 14/2, from 1956, and note down the
military strategy adopted by the Allies following the deployment of nuclear weapons. Afterwards,
discuss in class how to interpret the ending of the film A Bomb Was Stolen in the light of the
political situation at that time.
Task 4: Cinematic Design and Production Techniques
Subject areas: Art, Music
Stills: © Progress Film-Verleih
Look at these two stills from A Bomb Was Stolen. Describe how thoughts and feelings are
communicated in the film without any dialogue. Develop alternative ways to the ones shown here
for expressing such ideas.
Stills: © Progress Film-Verleih (left) / © Warner Brothers (right)
b) Look at the two stills from A Bomb Was Stolen and North by Northwest (USA 1959, Dir: Alfred
Hitchcock). To what extent do you think Ion Popescu-Gopo was influenced by the Hitchcock film?
Describe the atmosphere created by these images, taking into account the way they are designed
and framed (detail, size of image, camera angle, positioning of people and objects and so forth).
c) Working individually, write a short critique of the music and sound effects in the film A Bomb Was
Stolen, Describe the style of music and how music and sound effects are used: conclude with your
own opinion and judgment on these topics.
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Edition Notice:
Publisher: Federal Agency for Civic Education, Multimedia Department, Adenauerallee 86, 53113 Bonn,
Phone 0228 99-515-0, Fax 0228 99-515-113, info@bpb.de, www.bpb.de, in cooperation with Goethe-Institut
London and Zeughauskino Berlin
Author: Anja Göbel
Editorial Team: Katrin Willmann (bpb, responsible), Jörg Frieß (DHM), Dr. Christian Heger (bpb, volunteer)
Scientific Advice: Dr. Hans-Georg Golz
© November 2011
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